I recently updated my unstable install on my debian box. On restarting
X, I noticed that all the icons in gnome 2.8 were replaces by generic icons ending in .desktop. Instead of running the application on double-clicking the icon, the icon.desktop file gets opened in a text editor.

Nautilus does not display thumbnails of jpg images and if I click on a picture it does not display. If I click on computer in nautilus it displays two generic icons ending in .desktop and I can do nothing.

The menu still works perfectly though.

Please help.